Palmer: "Ricciardo makes Ocon look average"

Daniel Ricciardo's performance this season has been impressive, with the icing on the cake being a podium finish at the Nürburgring. Jolyon Palmer, himself a former Renault F1 driver, feels that Esteban Ocon's results so far have paled in comparison to those of his teammate.

Ricciardo outperforming Ocon

In his column for BBC, Palmer writes: "Since their updates for Silverstone, Ricciardo has qualified on the second row and set a fastest lap. This has brought Ricciardo up to fourth place in the championship." Palmer is less impressed by performance of his teammate, Esteban Ocon.

"He has had some reliability problems, but Renault will also hope to improve on Ricciardo and gain more points for Renault," says Palmer.
"Ricciardo has been driving great so far this season, and Ocon seems mediocre. Ocon is a young driver with a lot of potential, but is not up to Ricciardo. This just goes to show how well and consistently the Australian is performing this season."

Palmer continues: "In 11 attempts Ocon has only beaten Ricciardo once in qualifying - on a wet track in Q2 in Austria. At the Nürburgring he qualified just behind Ricciardo, but on average over the whole season he is almost 0.2 seconds behind."

"In the races, the difference is even bigger. In the Styrian Grand Prix, Ocon started ahead of Ricciardo, but was soon overtaken by him. Ricciardo also caught up with him in Sochi and finished 26 seconds ahead. I don't want to say that Ocon is performing badly. He has promising moments and has had more reliability problems than Ricciardo. But I think even Renault are surprised by Ricciardo's lead over their new driver," Palmer concludes.